1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects liquid from a nozzle.
2. Related Art
A liquid ejecting apparatus is an apparatus that includes a liquid ejecting head and ejects various liquids from the ejecting head. As such a liquid ejecting apparatus, an image recording apparatus is used, such as an ink jet type printer or an ink jet type plotter, but in recent years, the liquid ejecting apparatus has also been applied to various manufacturing apparatuses by taking advantage of the feature in which a very small amount of liquid can be accurately landed at a predetermined position. For example, the liquid ejecting apparatus is applied to a display manufacturing apparatus that manufactures a color filter such as a liquid crystal display, an electrode forming apparatus that forms an electrode such as an organic electro luminescence (EL) display or an FED (field emission display), or a chip manufacturing apparatus that manufactures a bio-chip (biological and chemical element). Then, liquid ink in a recording head of an image recording apparatus is ejected, and solution with color material such as red (R), green (G), or blue (B) in a color material ejecting head of a display manufacturing apparatus is ejected. In addition, liquid electrode material in an electrode material ejecting head for an electrode forming apparatus is ejected, and a solution of bio-organic material in a bio-organic material ejecting head of a chip manufacturing apparatus is ejected.
A liquid ejecting head such as that described above is configured in such a manner that ink is introduced into a pressure chamber from a liquid storage source such as an ink tank in which ink (a type of liquid) is stored, pressure variation is generated in the ink stored in the pressure chamber, and ink droplets are ejected from a nozzle leading to the pressure chamber. In recent years, in order to improve printing efficiency, the trend has been for an ejection interval between ink droplets which are ejected from a nozzle to be shortened as much as possible. For this reason, for example, there is a possibility that an amount of supply of ink to a pressure chamber may be insufficient, if ink droplets are ejected from a nozzle based on print data in such a manner that a high definition image can be printed (recorded) on a recording medium (a type of landing target). If an amount of supply of ink to a pressure chamber is insufficient, a negative pressure (hereinafter, referred to as back pressure) in a pressure chamber increases, and a change of ejection characteristics occurs, such as an amount of ink droplets which are ejected decreasing. In addition, in some cases, there is a possibility that ink droplets may not be ejected from a nozzle. As a result, irregularity may occur in an image being printed or dot omission may occur. In order to suppress irregularity of an image or the like due to such a change of a back pressure, back pressure variation being predicted based on an amount of ejection of ink droplets which are calculated from print data, and an amount of ejection of ink droplets being controlled by correcting print data based on the prediction have been developed, thereby suppressing irregularity of an image (for example, JP-A-2007-237477).
However, in a so-called serial printer which performs recording on a recording medium by scanning a liquid ejecting head in a predetermined direction, printing (ejection of ink droplets) is performed not only at a constant speed section at which the liquid ejecting head moves at a constant speed, but also at an acceleration and deceleration section at which the liquid ejecting head is accelerated or decelerated. Since the liquid ejecting head at the acceleration and deceleration section has a slower moving speed than that at a constant speed section, an ejection interval of ink droplets which are ejected from a nozzle is lengthened relatively. For this reason, at the acceleration and deceleration section, it is easy to relatively stabilize supplying of ink to a pressure chamber. However, in JP-A-2007-237477, since a moving speed of a liquid ejecting head, in other words, ejection control of ink droplets in which an ejection interval (usage status of nozzle) of ink droplets is taken into account is not performed, there is a possibility that the ejection of ink droplets may be suppressed, even if ink is sufficiently supplied to a pressure chamber at the acceleration and deceleration section. As a result, there is a possibility that ejection efficiency (printing efficiency) of ink may decrease.